Principles and Practice of Contemporary Acupuncture [Hardcover]

Sung J. Liao (Author), Mathew H. M. Lee (Author), Lorenz K. Y. Ng (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0824792912 | ISBN-13: 978-0824792916 | Publication Date: August 9, 1994 | Edition: 1

This outstanding reference/text provides a fundamental understanding of acupuncture for mainstream medical professionals, examines acupuncture's scientific bases, and discusses its traditional foundations as well as the similarities and differences with western medicine. Contains previously unavailable translations of ancient Chinese literature on acupuncture! Upgrading the healing art of acupuncture to serve as adjunctive or conjunctive therapy for modern medical treatments, Principles and Practice of Contemporary Acupuncture · interprets the theories of acupuncture in terms of current physiological research findings · emphasizes the latest practical results of effective therapeutic techniques · discusses the design of a protocol for the clinical investigation of acupuncture · highlights the potential importance of acupuncture in the management of chronic pain and other diseases or conditions · illustrates how acupuncture can complement standard medical procedures for more efficacious patient management · and much more!

Product Details

• Hardcover: 472 pages
• Publisher: Informa Healthcare; 1 edition (August 9, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824792912
• ISBN-13: 978-0824792916
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #871,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Quackery to Therapy: Acupuncture as Mainstream Medicine, June 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Principles and Practice of Contemporary Acupuncture (Hardcover)

Written by three U.S. physicians with almost ninety years of collective experience in the area, this breakthrough textbook is a comprehensive survey of the history, tradition, modern physiologic bases, utility, and methodology of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic pain and other diseases, morbidities, and addictions.

The most important point (pun intended) made by the authors is that there is now strong scientific evidence that acupuncture is clinically effective in treating many types of chronic pain, with more limited efficacy in the treatment of other diseases. As distinguished medical scientists (Sung J. Liao, M.D., now retired, was a senior member of the faculty at Yale Medical School for many years, as well as Clinical Professor of Surgical Sciences at New York University College of Dentistry and a Senior Fellow of the American Academy of Physicians, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and the Royal Academy of Medicine (United Kingdom), Mathew H.M. Lee, M.D., Medical Director of the Howard A. Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, Clinical Professor of Surgical Sciences at New York University College of Dentistry, a Fellow of the American Academy of Physicians, the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the American Public Health Association, and the American College of Preventive Medicine, among others, and Lorenz K. Y. Ng, M.D., Medical Director of the Chronic Pain Program at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, Washington, D.C. and Assistant Clinical Professor of Neurology at the George Washington University hospital, Washington, D.C.) applying conventional scientific methods in their analysis, they are quick to concede that acupuncture is not the "magic bullet" cure-all claimed for it by many quack practitioners of alternative medicine.

Nonetheless, based upon decades of experience and evaluation of the scientific evidence, they "believe strongly that acupuncture and, for that matter, traditional Chinese medicine are not alternatives to, or substitutes for, the mainstream allopathic medicine. . ." but rather, "complementary" to mainstream medical treatments.

In other words, despite the exaggerated claims made for it by quacks (which injure the discipline by discrediting it), acupuncture has real utility in the treatment of chronic pain, and may be useful for certain other ailments, as carefully documented and described, category by category, in the book itself.

If you're a serious student of acupuncture as complementary medicine, then buy this book. If you're a quack, then give it up-- you've been exposed.

And if you're neither of the above, then marvel that these three medical pioneers, their life's work now validated by the American Medical Association, have devoted careers to pulling an ancient healing tradition, mired in myths, superstition, and inflated claims, into the bright light of scientific inquiry and skepticism. The "slimmed down" version of scientifically validated acupuncture should help generations of patients and pain sufferers to come.